Pioneer Express Pty Ltd v Hotchkiss [1958] HCA 45

High Court of Australia Dixon C.J. McTiernan, Fullagar, Taylor and Menzies JJ. Pioneer Express Pty Ltd v Hotchkiss [1958] HCA 45

ORDER Pioneer Express Pty. Ltd. v. Hotchkiss. Order that the information be amended by substituting for the words therein beginning in that it did in the State of New South Wales in the course of and ending with the words licensed under the said Act as a public motor vehicle the following in that it did otherwise than in the course and for the purposes of inter-state trade operate as a public motor vehicle a motor vehicle, to wit motor coach No. VIC. GOS. 018, in that it did carry thereon for reward certain persons, to wit Messrs. Tingerak and Butler, Mrs. W. T. Thomas and Miss E. James, from Sydney in the State of New South Wales to Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory such vehicle not then being licensed under the said Act as a public motor vehicle. Order that the conviction or order of the Court of Petty Sessions be amended to accord with the information as so amended. Subject to the foregoing amendments order that the appeal be dismissed. Wade v. Hotchkiss. Appeal allowed. Conviction or order of the Court of Petty Sessions set aside.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

Oct. 20 Dixon C.J.

These are two appeals, heard together, from two respective convictions by a court of petty sessions exercising federal jurisdictions. The convictions were obtained upon informations under State law but the jurisdiction became federal because some of the defences that failed were founded upon immunities which, according to the defendant's claim, arose under the Constitution of the Commonwealth. The informations were laid under s. 28 of the State Transport (Co-ordination) Act 1931-1956 N.S.W.. The material part of the section provides that no person shall, except in pursuance of a permit under that Act or under an exemption granted or declared under the Act, drive or operate or cause or permit to be driven or operated as a public motor vehicle any motor vehicle, unless the motor vehicle is licensed as a public motor vehicle and is used in conformity with the licence.